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Doyle vows to abstain on matters linked to developer Xu

Michelle Griffin

Lord mayor Robert Doyle has vowed he will not vote on any matter connected to developer Jeff Xu or any person or business associated with him.

Cr Doyle told radio station 3AW that "any time something comes before council that is even remotely connected to those people [who donated to the Doyle campaign] or their connections or their company, you don't vote on it."

A Fairfax Media investigation has uncovered tens of thousands of dollars from donors connected to Mr Xu.

The lord mayor defended his official donation list: "There's nothing wrong with taking donations from people, but you've got to detail it ... any time anything comes before us that involves any of those people or their companies, I have to declare a conflict, as indeed does my whole ticket, and then not vote on it."

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Asked if he would recognise all of Mr Xu's companies and associations in a council application, Cr Doyle said it was council practice "to check who the developer is".

In other developments, the lord mayor has cancelled a pilot cab-share scheme because of a lack of interest.

The scheme, running from the Queen Street cab rank over summer, offered customers at night the chance to share a taxi to an outer suburb for a flat fee.

"People just don't want to use it," he told AW. "We said we'll trial it until the end of February, and to be honest we're just going to have to drop it.

"It works perfectly in Brisbane, it's working out of Fortitude Valley now. People [in Melbourne] just weren't prepared to share a cab with strangers."